Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Expanding The Conceptualization Of Support In Low-Wage Carework: The Case Of Home Care Aides And Client Death, Emma K. Tsui, Marita Lamonica, Maryam Hyder, Paul Landsbergis, Jennifer Zelnick, Sherry Baron

Publications and Research

Home care aides are a rapidly growing, non-standard workforce who face numerous health risks and stressors on the job. While research shows that aides receive limited support from their agency employers, few studies have explored the wider range of support that aides use when navigating work stress and considered the implications of these arrangements. To investigate this question, we conducted 47 in-depth interviews with 29 home care aides in New York City, focused specifically on aides’ use of support after client death. Theories of work stress, the social ecological framework, and feminist theories of care informed our research. Our analysis …

Long Working Hours And Occupational Stress-Related Illness And Injury: Mini Review, Harrynauth Persaud, Shawn Williams

Publications and Research

Workplace injuries and illnesses have been associated with long working hours. In the United States, working overtime has been on the rise. It is estimated that American workers spend an extra 1.5 hours per week at their job, and for those working in manufacturing-overtime has increased by 25% when compared to 10 years ago. Data suggests that working greater than 12 hours in a single day was associated with a 37% (95% CI=1.16–1.59) increase in hazard rate (HR), while working greater than 60 hour per week was associated with a 23% (95% CI=1.05–1.45) increase in HR. For those working overtime, …

Occupational Stress And Increased Risk For Type 2-Diabetes: A Narrative Review, Harrynauth Persaud, Shawn Williams

Publications and Research

Diabetes is a significant health problem in the United States. There is a large body of research that explains the biological and pathoetiological cause(s) of this increasingly prevalent disease. There is also an increasing body of research that explores the psychosocial causes of diabetes mellitus type 2. The association between stressful work organization and diabetes has been established as a significant precursor and causative agent of diabetes mellitus - type 2. The objective of this narrative review is to discuss the impact of work stress as it applies to the rising incidence of diabetes - type 2, and to propose …

Chiropractors’ Perception Of Occupational Stress And Its Influencing Factors: A Qualitative Study Using Responses To Open-Ended Questions, Shawn Williams

Publications and Research

Background: Job stress and emotional exhaustion have been shown to have a negative impact on the helping professional. The development and causal relations of job stress and emotional exhaustion are rather unclear in the chiropractic profession. The objective of this study is to understand the main sources of occupational stress and emotional exhaustion among doctors of chiropractic.

Methods: Analysis of the written responses to web-based open-ended questionnaire was performed using an interpretive research methodology. Additionally, cross tabulation and Chi square statistical tests were conducted to match and couple the demographic data with the categorical themes.

Results: Fourteen professional stress categories …

Re: "Job Strain And The Cortisol Diurnal Cycle In Mesa: Accounting For Between- And Within-Day Variability, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Renzo Bianchi

Publications and Research

Rudolph et al. (2016) examined the association between job strain and cortisol profile. Several potential confounders were considered, including sociodemographic characteristics, income-wealth index, financial strain, physical health, physical activity, and medication use. No relationship between job strain and the cortisol awakening response was observed. We have 4 comments on the methods used in the study. First, although the authors related the modifications in cortisol profiles to job strain, they did not assess and statistically control for a number of nonoccupational strain factors (e.g., family- or couple-related chronic stress). Second, depressive symptoms and disorders were not considered in the study. Depression …

Burnout Does Not Help Predict Depression In French Schoolteachers, Renzo Bianchi, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Eric Laurent

Publications and Research

Objectives: Burnout has been viewed as a phase in the development of depression. However, supportive research is scarce. We examined whether burnout predicted depression among French school teachers.

Methods: We conducted a 2-wave, 21-month study involving 627 teachers (73% female) working in French primary and secondary schools. Burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory and depression with the 9-item depression module of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). The PHQ-9 grades depressive symptom severity and provides a provisional diagnosis of major depression. Depression was treated both as a continuous and categorical variable using linear and logistic regression analyses. We controlled …

Is Burnout A Depressive Disorder? A Reexamination With Special Focus On Atypical Depression, Renzo Bianchi, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Eric Laurent

Publications and Research

Whether burnout and depression cover the same psychopathology remains to be elucidated. To date, subtypes of depression have been overlooked in research on the burnout–depression overlap. Our aim was to estimate the prevalence of depressive disorders in workers with burnout while examining the overlap of burnout with the atypical subtype of depression. The present study included 5,575 schoolteachers (mean age = 41 years; 78% female). Burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Depression was measured with the 9-item depression scale of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Atypical features of depression were examined using a dedicated module, referenced to …